Dress #5 - poolside dress

I started looking at simple poolside dresses, the kind you can just throw on over your bikini, thinking if I could find a really simple elasticated style then I could probably quickly make one in an afternoon ready for my holiday this week.

After looking through a few, I settled on the style of this Accessorize dress as it looked relatively simple to recreate:

The only suitable fabric I have available is a lightweight cream cotton that I picked up recently intending to use as a lining for dress #4 (the tweed work dress), which in theory should work fine - but it'll be rather dull looking in plain cream (could just end up looking like a muslin!) so I need to prettify it with some sort of embellishment. I have a number of bits of ribbon and lace so I'm currently looking for ideas about what I can do to improve the look of it, maybe by adding some colour.

I'll let you know how I get on!

Dress #4 - vintage tweed librarian dress?

Ok, so as always I currently have a new project on the go. This time I'm using a Butterick Retro '58 pattern, B5707:



...and here's the dress view. I'll be using view B, but with the three quarter length sleeves from view A. I liked the cowl neck and I want this to be a normal pencil skirt length dress, not the longer length suggested by the pattern. I also had the perfect fabric - and the perfect amount of it - in my stash, it was a bit of a squeeze fitting all the pieces on but it worked out very nicely, I love using fabric to the max without there being any waste! The fabric is a kind of tweed pattern, a polyster-wool blend British made fabric that my lovely grandmother sent me amongst other bits and pieces. It's a lovely fabric and I've wanted to make a smart dress for work out of it for some time.

I cut out all the pieces and this took some time, as I was really worried about lining up the checks correctly on the seams, as I've never worked with check or a large pattern before, so it was a bit of guesswork. To be honest it hasn't worked out to be a perfect match, but I think it'll look ok. So far, I've already put together the top and from trying it on I'm not particularly happy with the way the cowl neck sits, it just isn't right, I really should have done a muslin - but too late now! I'm just hoping the weight of the skirt will adjust the way it sits. Here is the dress so far, i.e. dress top:


However, after getting this far I realised (a little too late, I think) that I really should have made a lining up at the same time and sewn it in at the neck instead of using the facing, as the fabric is fraying like crazy. Should have seen that coming! So I need to get the pattern out again and cut the dress again, I've been putting it off a bit but I wanted to go and buy some nice light 100% cotton for the lining in this dress, as the usual shiny stuff (NO idea what it's called) made dress #3 a bit 'swishy' like a party dress and I don't want that, plus it's pretty important I don't get too hot and sweaty in this one as it's definitely going to be dry clean only!!

Anyway more progress on this dress really soon, I'm back in the swing and thoroughly enjoying getting on with the project so watch this space...

Vintage fair find - sewing stool / box & contents

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I went to a vintage fair some time ago and finally got round to sorting out its contents. There was just SO much there that I thought I should lay it all out and take a photo, to share my astonishment!

Here's the sewing box / stool itself, not the most attractive thing I've ever seen, admittedly:



...but I was just overcome with fascination at its contents, there were some vintage items in there and a number of Singer machine feet I just didn't know what on earth were for! So I couldn't resist, and brought it home. Here's the contents of the box, laid out on my table:



Can you believe all this stuff came out of that little stool?! Only one amendment to that, actually - the round wicker basket of cotton reels is mine, and more than half of those were already in there, but I'd already thrown the new ones in there before deciding I should lay all this out, so I just put that out instead of trying to figure out which ones belonged to the collection.

Here are some close-ups of the items, I've asked my mum and grandma for advice about the 'Darning Machine' and the collection of machine feet, as I'm completely clueless! An interesting collection though, I'm very pleased with it!

Burda magazine pattern - halterneck holiday top

On Sunday afternoon I was feeling a bit restless, and super excited about my last minute holiday with a girl friend to hot hot Turkey (off next week!). I decided to put my restless energy to good use by sewing something, a short project that I could finish in an afternoon.

I didn't want to use any of my patterns as they're nearly all dress patterns and I thought a top or shirt would be a quicker project, so I took out a recent copy of Burda magazine I bought to take on a few days away we had recently. It's the first time I've bought Burda magazine and I was absolutely astounded by what great value for money it was - it contains more than 100 free patterns! I couldn't believe it! I knew I'd be able to find something quick and easy in there.

I really wanted to use an old pillowcase that had been stuck in my stash for ages, I had no other real use for it as it doesn't have a second matching pillow, it was all sad and lonely on its own! Seemed like a perfect fabric for a first attempt at a new (albeit quick and easy) pattern. It was a dark teal colour, with a prominent sequined flower design on the front. Being a pillowcase, obviously I was very limited in fabric width and the pattern had to be appropriate for that. I quickly came across this great drawstring halter neck top/dress, perfect for wearing on holiday in Turkey!



And here's the glossy model example of the dress view, which is always nice to see before starting the project:

So I set about making up the pattern, and reading the instructions in detail since this was the first time I was making this pattern. It was clear that one pillowcase wasn't quite going to stretch to a dress! So the top it would have to be, fine by me though as it'd be nice to have a new top to wear with my shorts on holiday. Now understandably to save space, Burda have had to put all the patterns on top of each other in different colours, and you have to trace out the one you want to use. Simples! Or NOT - take a look at this example of one part of the pattern:



Horrible, isn't it! The biggest problem is actually finding the piece you want in the first place - after that, not so bad. Anyway, my pillowcase was slightly narrower than the pattern called for, but I thought it'd be fiiiiiiiine and just went ahead anyway :D

I centred the pattern around where the sequin flower was, so that it'd be sat nicely on the bottom hem of the top, and went from there.


...and here's the final product! I really must learn to be more photogenic, if that can be learned - or at least look a bit happier about wearing this! A bit baggy in style, and a bit longer than I would have probably chosen, but it will do very nicely for a slight hint of glamour on holiday, maybe for wear to a restaurant one evening?

Just the facts...
Fabric: one pillowcase, it rings a bell that I picked this up a couple of years ago for 20p at a car boot sale, but I couldn't swear to it!
Pattern: Burda magazine June 2012, view 118A
Year: Contemporary
Notions: 35"ish elastic for the back and sides up to the halterneck(from stash - donated a while ago by my lovely mother); ribbon for the drawstring (from stash - donated in a tin of goodies by my grandma, happened to be a perfect match in colour!)
Time to complete: 2-3 hours, most of which was deciphering and tracing the pattern!
First worn: Other than the photo, for my hols next week!
Wear again? Yes!
Total cost: Basically nothing - unless you include the price of the magazine, and the 20p pillow case!

Dress #3 - Alice in Wonderland?

So, where have I been?! As warned, I've been busy working a lot but am now finally starting to wind down and have been back at my sewing machine working on a few things (I do love having several projects on the go at the same time!)

So first up I'm going to tell you about a project that started almost 4 weeks ago when a new pattern arrived, and which is now almost finished - just the hem to do. I enjoyed using this pattern, as it fit pretty well without much adjustment and it seems to be kind of a 'wardrobe staple' dress pattern according to other blogs, so hopefully I'll use it a few times. The pattern is Simplicity 2444:



I decided for my first attempt (and only my third ever dress, after all!) that I should make the most simple of the designs - view A / the top left in the dress view here:

Also I decided to line this dress, partly because I'd had a bad experience with dress #2 fraying along the seams even though I'd overlocked (but not with an overlocker/serger) the seams, and the insides looked a mess and I didn't want to risk the wear on the seams for this dress.

The blue fabric was already in my stash, having been donated by my grandmother around Christmas time, but I still had to buy the lining fabric and a zip - but not even any thread, as my wonderful grandma had also donated some thread, one particular reel of which was a great match! So this dress probably cost me about £6ish to make.

Here's the result, sorry about the awful pic but you'll be used to that from me by now already!



I like the fit, although there seems to be some small amount of bagginess at the waist to chest area, but not enough to bother me. I really should have done my hair for this pic. Ah well.

As you can probably see, the hem is still only pinned and needs to be finished off, but it's just about there! Really pleased with it, my only concern is that it might be a little bit too Alice in Wonderland...

Just the facts:
Fabric: from (Grandma's!) stash, free
Pattern: Simplicity 2444
Year: contemporary
Notions: invisible zip, lining
Time to complete: not sure, let's just say a month!
First worn: not yet worn out, needs hemming first
Wear again? Yes, maybe even for work; definitely with a white apron and blonde wig for fancy dress parties!
Total cost: about £6ish

Finally I want to thank all the lovely contributors at The Sewing Forum for their help when I've needed it. I would thoroughly recommend signing up whether you're a beginner or an old hand, it's a great community of advice and thoughts on a range of sewing subjects, based in the UK but open to all. Go check it out!